Organized Crime in New Democracies

POLSCI 511

Purpose of course is to explore (i) the conditions under which transitions to democracy in poor and middle-income countries generate waves of organized crime and (ii) the conditions under which criminals embrace insurgent and terrorist actions to control states. Special attention given to the illegal trade of drugs, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and to the plundering of natural resources. Students will be reading game-theoretic analyses and empirical research based on aggregate data, individual survey data, ethnographies and natural and field experiments. One course / 3 units.